So I’ve had a rather old and very abused 2600K build. She lasted me through XCom, through Skyrim, and even through Cities Skyline.... sorta. In the least 2 weeks I’ve had multiple hard drive corruptions, have had to reinstall windows, and then ran into a boot loop I can’t fix. After a new power supply and some free diagnostics from my local supply store I was told my MoBo decided to GTFO. Fortunately the GTX 1070 tested out in tip top shape.

My primary uses for a computer are:

1) Gaming

2) Photo Editing

3) Video Editing

*) Always at the ready I must have processing potential - Home office/web browsing/music streaming/downloading/everything else while 1-3 are doing their thing

This makes for a hard list to accommodate. I suppose it also makes me the target audience for the new AMD Ryzen processors.

So I bit (pun intended?). In my defense I did wait till late Saturday the weekend of launch to see some preliminary reviews and I’m happy I did so.

Low and behold it seemed to be that the new Ryzen chips could all be overclocked to the same levels and give about the same performance.

So my cheap ass thought; “For Fuck Sake POD, why spend more hard earned Canadian pesos on something fancy when the cheap crap will do ya?!”

So I didn’t. I bought a Ryzen 1700 (note the lack of an x there) with a PRIME ASUS B350 PLUS.

I feel this is the best value in the new Ryzen line up as it stands now. She takes a bit of work, but you can add pixies and get’r to near or at the OC levels the 1800X; even when the 1800X is overclocked.

Yes, that is right, the new Ryzen chips ALL seem to have the same thermal limit with current supporting board optimizations. I do feel that if/when new updates come out that more headroom will be unlocked.

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The 1700 Ryzen setup is sitting at a stable 4.0GHz. After every Burn In/Benchmark/Stress Test I ran.

It. Is. Stable.

I have the ASUS included MoBo software to thank for that. I’m by no means a smart man when it comes to setting up a proper Overclock. I can build a LEGO and I can assemble a computer, but fuck me if I can tailor voltage to not melt a cpu. No sir, not my bag.

So, for a thumbs wearing chub like me, how’d I do it? Well I have a mostly well ventilated case and a huge ass Noctua air cooler. That and the AUSU boards do a fantastic job of running a progressive thermal load on their auto OC settings. Seriously, ASUS does. Like worth spending the extra $10 pesos on.

For me this system is suiting my current needs a hellion times better than my old 2700K did (even with the GTX 1070 installed) and at a price that my Canadian pesos can stomach.